LulzSec leader was a snitch

It has been reported that 28 year old Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. Sabu, the alleged leader of LulzSec, was actually an FBI informer. Apparently, he was working for FBI for at least six months and managed to help FBI charge five other hackers.

LulzSec is an offshoot of Anonymous that starred in many attacks throughout 2011. Among its victims are politicians, the US Department of Justice, Visa, Mastercard, Rupert Murdoch’s empire, Stratfor, Irish party Fine Gael, etc.

It turned out that Sabo had been charged with 12 counts and secretly pleaded guilty to the charges on August 15, 2011. Had he been found guilty, he’d face a sentence up to some 124 years in the can. However, Sabo denied it at the time.

FBI’s documents revealed that a snitch called CW was “acting under the direction of the FBI” and helped speed up the leak of a conference call between the FBI and UK’s Serious and Organized Crime Agency. Another document claims that he facilitated the release of emails nicked from Stratfor that are now being published by Wikileaks, all while under the FBI’s thumb. Naturally this gives way to many other questions.

FBI seems to be quite happy about it, as it claims that it chopped off the organization’s head. On the other hand, security firms warn that this could trigger yet another wave of attacks by angered hackers. We however can’t stop thinking how the story is strangely reminiscent of 1984, as opposed to the V for Vendetta scenario romantically envisioned by some.